Janmashtami – Why Krishna descends Varanasi youth Gita 4.8 – Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
One of the most mysterious questions in general in theistic traditions is how and why does God descend to the world? So, broadly speaking, if we have some understanding of divinity, some understanding of spirituality. So, basic understanding is that we are currently in this world, but above this world is another bigger reality.
And this may be called by different names, but we could broadly call this the material world is the place where we are living. And the spiritual world is where God, Krishna is living. And normally, our focus is on this world.
We have desires, we interact with the world based on primarily two forces. One is needs. We need food, we need air, we need water.
And then, that’s not all that drives us in life. We want more. So, beyond that, we have desires.
So, based on our desires and needs, we pursue various things in life. I hope you understand. You are not able to speak? Now, while we are pursuing desires and needs in this world, also upon us come some things.
That is upon us, we may say from the world may come troubles upon us may come troubles and may come threats. So, the troubles means that something is already right now a problem. A threat is something that may become a problem in future.
So now, sometimes desires, needs, troubles and threats are all related. That if a need is not being fulfilled, that’s a trouble for us. If there is a famine and there is no food available, then that’s a trouble.
So, these are related. But basically, in terms of what we do in the world and what the world does to us. That is two broad interactions.
So now, when all this is going on, most of us are normally caught in the world. I have to get this done. I have to prevent this from happening.
I have to get this person to do these things. It’s only rarely that amid all this point, our vision goes upwards. So, generally our vision goes upward when we are not able to get things done.
We will understand God’s rules at multiple levels. Let’s say, most of us go around our life. How many of us think that okay, I would like to go to the police station for a casual visit.
No. Generally, it’s reassuring to know that the police station is there. And if there is any problem, I can call the cops.
And I can report a complaint over there. But a police station is not a place where we just casually visit. So, at a basic level, when we look upward, we may have the vision which is law-centred.
Law-centred means that things are not going right in my life. Things are not as they should be. So therefore, maybe I should turn towards a higher being who is expected to maintain order in the world.
So, if a neighbour is troubling us too much, if there is crime becoming high in our neighbourhood, then we may want to report to the police that the police can do something about it. So, there can be a law-centred approach to God. Now, at a level of a law-centred approach, it is that there is something wrong over here.
And that’s why I’m coming to adjust to a complaint. But, so we are outstation and we come back and find out that our home has been robbed. Then, we may rush to the police station and give a complaint.
But, if it is night and we are at home and suddenly we hear that somebody is breaking down or banging loudly or they are pushing, we hear some mysterious footsteps in our house. Then, if we are all alone, we may say this is an ongoing robbery right now, at the time when we want the police to come. So, there can be different levels of interaction.
Or, if the police get a tip-off that, okay, at this particular place, a particular deadly robber who has been doing a series of robberies or crimes or killings or whatever, that person is going to strike. And the police may come directly with it. So, the idea is that there can be, when there is a little trouble, there is one robbery, okay, the citizens may go and report to the police.
But, if there is a gang war going on or there is a huge attack going on and the police comes swooping down. So, that way, if we have this law-centred vision of God, then the avatar descends when there is a time of great emergency. Like, normally we go to God, but there are times when God comes to the steward.
So, in the law-centred approach, the idea is we may go to God, but sometimes in the case of great emergency or you could say a huge crime. So, there is minor crime and major crime. There are different things that happen.
So, when Krishna descends or when Narasimhadev descends, at that time, there is huge torment and torture going on, not just at an individual level, but at a societal level. There is an autocratic tyrannical king who is causing immense harm to everyone and at that time the person has to there is an emergency, have to come there. So, Krishna comes, Lakshadwaj has to come and people feel, Krishna, oh God, you have to come.
And that’s the time when the Lord descends. So, this is one way of understanding. But let’s look forward.
Who did read the next paragraph? My dear Lord, what you do at crucial moments in history, you are also ready to do during the traumatic moments within each human heart. In many ways, the human heart is a microcosm of the world. Just as in the world, your position is not always prominent at the manifest level.
Though you are always omnipotent, the same applies to the human heart. Yes. So now, when you consider the concept of avatar, that the spiritual level of reality is the material level of reality and there are occasional spiritual emergencies when the Lord descends to the soul.
The Sambhavami you gave me. So, the avatar descends at particular times. But if the question may come, okay, the avatar descends at that time, but what about all the times in between? Now, I recently had to do a tooth extract.
So, I was talking with a friend in America. I was telling him, extracting a tooth is quite painful. I have many different pains depending on how the extraction goes.
A tooth extraction can be quite painful. In fact, in English, often it’s considered like a metaphor for irritating or painful thing. I had to visit a dentist.
So, the idea is that it’s painful. So, I was telling him it’s quite painful. And he was telling me that.
Actually, he had to do eye searching. And that was hugely painful. So, at that time I was thinking, okay, which pain is more? Is there a pain of objectively looking up? You know, they say if you have a thigh surgery, that’s very painful.
Is a bone injury painful? So, which pain is the worst pain? Which pain is the worst pain? Whichever we are going through. The nature of the mind is that you always feel, what I am going through is terrible. And from that perspective, we feel there is a constant emergency in the world.
So, the Lord should constantly be there. Isn’t it? So, the Avatar comes yuge yuge, comes intermittently. There are so many things wrong in the world.
And we feel, why is the Lord not coming here at this particular time? Well, the point is that the Lord, what he does in the world, he is also ready to do in the world. So, broadly speaking, when Krishna says, So, the word Dharma has many different meanings. But one way to understand the word Dharma, in a fairly inclusive way is that Dharma is harmony or harmonious belonging.
That means that we are all parts of some larger whole. So, whatever larger whole we are a part of, we have a Dharma to that. So, for example, right now, you are attending this talk.
So, if you are attending this talk, then your Dharma is that you keep your phone in silence and you pay attention to the speaker or at least don’t chit-chat with others so that others are distracted. That’s the way you harmoniously belong to the world. Now, but Dharma is not only one way.
Dharma is two ways. If we are belonging to a larger whole, the larger whole also, if we are doing something in a larger whole, the larger whole also has to do something for us. So, for example, if you are expected to pay attention to this class, then I should also be prepared enough to speak something that is worth your paying attention to.
So, Dharma is both individual to collective and collective to individual. So, can you come here expecting a spiritual talk? And I go on a political rant over here. Okay, this community or this country or this political party.
You will start thinking, should I be sitting here or should I go away? So, Dharma is both ways. And this applies everywhere. Say, if you are driving a vehicle on the road, then we have to follow the rules of the road transport system.
That is Dharma. But then if we are following the rules, that’s the individuals belonging to the collective and contributing to the collective, then the road transport system should also be such that it should also be fair to us. If you are not going above the speed limit and certainly we should not be pulled over unnecessarily.
We should not be fined if we are not doing anything wrong. If you are without doing anything wrong, we are given a fine. We say, that is not fine.
Something is wrong over here. So, the idea is Dharma is both individual to collective and collective to individual. And Krishna talks about dharmasya glani.
When dharma goes off, dharma declines. It can be both ways. So, the individual may not be contributing to the whole in a proper way or the whole may not be supporting the individual in the proper way.
So, both parts are important. So, when you talk about dharma, there is the individual dharma and this is what Krishna has talked about earlier in the Bhagavad Gita or rather Arjuna is asking Krishna He is saying, Krishna I do not know what is the right thing for me to do. The right thing means in that context the right way to belong.
The right larger own to belong to. I will explain this point a little later but let us start with the concept. Individual means how the individual contributes to the whole.
Then there is a collective dharma. The collective dharma is basically what is Krishna talking about in this particular 4.8. The collective dharma is basically how the whole supports the individual. So, here when Krishna is saying that I will Here he is talking about I will do reform or revolution at the collective level.
So, it is going back to the starting police example that if one individual is committing crime, another individual is committing crime, then the police have to come and penalise, punish those particular wrongdoers. That is the individuals not doing their dharma. But if it is happening that the crime becomes so much that the police are afraid of the criminals.
I was in Chicago and they had gone for a programme and the devotees were telling me this is a very high crime area. And all of Chicago, not only Chicago, many parts of the great city but some parts are very high crime. And they said we are going for this programme, we make sure that our car is in good condition, our petrol is fuelled.
We don’t stop anywhere along the way. We enter into the area, we go right inside the programme venue. After the main door of that particular place is locked, then we open our car.
They said that if we call the police if something goes wrong, they said someday the police will reply why did you even go there? Even we don’t go there. There should not be a lawless land like that in any city. I am just joking.
But in America, it’s a very left orientated country. Just to emphasise, if we consider that the individual may not contribute to the whole sometimes or the whole may not support the individual. So you have heard these terms, political left and political right.
So the political right is more concerned that the individual be responsible. It’s the individual responsibility. The system works, you have to adapt.
You have to grow up. So for example, in your college, there are not enough gadgets for doing particular experiment. Or there is not sufficient technological support.
Then the faculty may say, you know, you adjust. You come over time or you adjust the timing. So the right is all about the individual splitting into the system.
You take responsibility. Don’t complain about the system. You just split it and grow.
Now the left is more concerned about the collective’s duty to the individual. And they may say the system itself is not. And they may say we have to have collective change.
There might be campaigning. There might be agitation. And there can be reform.
Reform is more gradual and incremental. Or there can be a revolution. Where there is destruction and then replacement hopefully.
But the idea is that one has space for both the right and the left. Because sometimes the individual need to adjust. There is nothing and no place in the world where everything is perfect.
But just because something is imperfect, that does not mean everything is imperfect on the same level. Something is imperfect and durable and something is imperfect and undurable. Isn’t it? So sometimes the left needs to be active.
In the sense that we have to have change in the society. So if there is a lot of lawlessness, then at the top the government may decide we want to replace the police chief. We may want to revamp the whole police force.
Or if there are an army may come into a particular place and they will just attack the crime lords and destroy the crime lords and they will instal more competent police people who don’t have so much fear of the criminals over there. So the idea is that there is sometimes a collective change is required. And when Krishna descends to the world, he comes to bring about this collective change.
Krishna is focussing on, he is saying that when I descend, the avatars you could say, when the avatar descends, the avatar’s purpose is to bring about collective dharma. So there is a timely purpose for the avatar. And that is to establish collective dharma.
So for example, a tyrannical king like Kamsa was ruling and Krishna neutralised Kamsa. Krishna restored Ugrasya, who was far more virtuous as the king of the Yadus. Similarly, now Krishna helped Arjuna to remove Duryodhana.
So we will discuss that a little later. But generally, when Krishna descends, his purpose is to bring about a collective change. However, that is not the only purpose of Krishna.
The avatar’s descent has a timely purpose, but the avatar’s descent also has a timeless purpose. And the timeless purpose, so collective dharma is established. Established means force is used.
If somebody has to fight, there is fight that is there. And Krishna establishes what we can call as law and order. But at the same time, Krishna has a timeless purpose and that is centred on individual.
Now the individual dharma cannot be enforced. It cannot be established. It has to be inspired.
So the Gita’s vision of God is a very fascinating vision of God. Earlier I started with the metaphor of citizens and police. The citizens are in trouble, the police come and help at that.
Now we often talk of God as the protector. So if we consider our conception of God, there is a significant difference say between the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. In the Ramayana, Lord Ram is the hero.
He is the greatest fighter. There is an amazing supporting cast. There is Hanuman who comes in and sometimes you know in a movie, you have heard the word cameo.
Cameo means somebody coming for a very short moment. One act, there is one star or another star comes in for 20 minutes and everybody talks about that star only. Although Ram is the hero, the most popular section about the Ramayana is Sundarkand.
At Sundarkand, there is no Ram. Only in the beginning, Lord Ram is sending Hanuman and he is at the end, Hanuman is literally informing Ram. So Hanuman is like the show stealer in the Ramayana.
But the idea is that still Lord Ram has a significant role. It is Lord Ram who kills Ravana ultimately. So when we talk about God, we may envision God as the protector.
And this is a common theme. God will protect us. And that is a valid theme but the protector theme is that we are like citizens.
We are ordinary citizens and the police will come and protect us. But if you look at the Gita’s vision, conception of God, especially in the Gita, Krishna is not telling Arjuna that I will defeat all the enemies. You just sit and watch.
It’s like establishing Dharma is not a spectator sport. Spectator sport means you sit and watch the spectacle. So Krishna says, Krishna says, you do it.
So the Gita’s vision of God is not just a protector but it is an image. So here the image is like God is like the police and we are like the citizens. But in the Gita’s vision, it is like each one of us is meant to be a warrior.
And Krishna is the commander. So Krishna doesn’t say that I am the hero and you watch what heroics happen. Krishna says, yes, I am the supreme hero.
You join my team and I will empower you to become a hero. Just like Krishna tells Arjuna, you fight and attain victory. So similarly Krishna’s vision is that we, each one of us, become empowered.
So yes, sometimes Krishna fixes the collective himself. And those are dramatic moments in human history. But throughout history, Krishna can empower each one of us to do our individual dharma better.
And in that way, Krishna is always there with us. So let’s read on the next part. O Lord, empower me so that I can take charge of blessing you in charge of my heart.
Please, O Lord, I beg you fervently make your presence manifest within my heart and crush the many destructive and destructive desires that have taken root. So the idea here is that Krishna wants each one of us to be a part of his team. When Krishna says, He says, you are my part always.
Now this is not just a philosophical truth. that I am a part of Krishna. And Sanatana means always.
This is a truth and it’s an important philosophical truth. But that philosophical truth has a psychological implication. It has a psychological consequence or an impact.
What is that? I will always have a part in Krishna’s team. If I am always a part of Krishna, that means I will always have a part in Krishna’s team. So if somebody is a part of the Indian cricket team, if they are a part of the playing eleven team, then they will have a part in the team.
Now what is the exact part? That they have to talk with the captain. Somebody might say that, okay, I am a fast bowler. That’s the broad role that they have.
But somebody might be a fast bowler, somebody might be a spin bowler, somebody might be a wicket keeper. And you could say there are broad roles that are there for different players. But the captain, the captain’s plan and the situation’s meaning, both can cause the roles to shift slightly.
That sometimes there may be a fast bowler who may normally open the attack. At a particular time, the captain may say, I want you fully available in the middle or at the end. So the specific contribution may shift.
Sometimes somebody might be a bowler, but they have to bat. And that batting will play a very important role. Somebody might be a batsman, but if the bowler enjoys the batsman, he might be called to bowl.
So when we talk about roles, what happens is, if you consider a role in a team, at one level, it’s fixed. There is a fixed role in the sense that this is your broad place. This is what you are meant to do.
But it is also flexible. It is not just fixed, it is also flexible. So broadly you can say fixed will be based on the talent or the training of the person.
Talent and training of the person. That somebody is opening batsman, somebody is a little out of batsman. Like that, talent and training they have something.
But the flexibility will be based on the captain’s plan or we could say more captain’s strategy and that person. What do we want to do? Sometimes a very aggressive batsman, we are told you are not bad in the beginning, you come in the beginning. You want to just overwhelm the opposite batsman, opposite bowlers.
You just attack and attack. Sometimes you may say that we will wait for you to come at the end. Because we need somebody to attack in the end.
So that could be captain’s strategy and that could also be the situation’s need. So basically, if we understand this point that we have a role in Krishna’s plan. So now as far as if you consider Indian cricket team, there are only 11 people.
11 people from how much? 140, 100 plus 120 crore people. The chance seems to be so so musical of somebody even being in the team. Anytime they may be thrown out of the team.
But as far as Krishna’s team is concerned, we all have a secure place in it. Sanatana. We will never be thrown out of the team.
At the same time, while we will never be thrown out of the team, but we may be thrown around up and down in the team. Because based on how we contribute, that may change. So in Krishna’s team, if we consider, we are thrown out at this time.
But up or down. That means somebody gets a more prominent role. If a bowler is bowling well, that’s what they look at.
You bowl more overs. And if a bowler is not bowling well, you say, okay, you take rest now. Enough.
If you don’t take rest, everybody has to run to catch the ball, which has already been hit. So the idea is that everyone has to contribute their part properly. So for us, we are always a part of Krishna’s team.
Every one of us. So when Krishna comes, if you see the specific Gita’s context, till now I talked about these two separate things. There is the individual dharma, there is the collective dharma.
But it is in the context of the Gita, Krishna is using Arjuna’s individual dharma to establish the collective. Isn’t it? Arjuna, you fight. And you fight, you play your role well.
And by that, we will change the collective situations. So now that may or may not happen all the time. So the individual’s role may be I can’t change the system, but I will maximise what good I can do in the system.
So like there might be a captain who might have been rigid. This is the only way things have to be done. And the captain is not very flexible, not open to new ideas.
The team player will constantly complain this captain is terrible. But okay, that person is a captain. You play well and the team player plays well, one day the player can become the captain.
So now when I am talking about captain, I am talking about the collective as what a collective we might be. You know, there might be a part of a school club or a college club. We might be a part of the college project team.
There might be a leader who might not be good. For each one of us, by contributing to our individual dharma, what will happen is that we may get a bigger role. So Arjuna’s role was in one sense individual dharma needs to be done.
But individual dharma will contribute not just to him playing his role but to it will also lead to collective dharma. That there will be a more virtuous team coming over there. Collective dharma will become better.
So when Krishna descends to this world, his point is to inspire each one of us to do our dharma better. If we are in a college, if we are in a family, if we are in a spiritual community, if we are in a country, wherever we are, we try to belong better to that. Belong better to that larger group.
So that is Krishna inspires individual dharma. And we all have desires that can go wrong. Our desires can take us in an unhealthy direction.
So our desires can be at a basic level disruptive. Disruptive means that say if all of you are getting this class but there is one particular person who is constantly looking at their phone, their phone is beeping and then what happens? That’s disruptive. Nobody can sleep at night because the phone is beeping, the phone is ringing.
So our individual desires can like that be disruptive. Now when Sri Prabhupada was giving a talk in America, at that time it was early 1967. So at that time there was this counterculture and the counterculture meant that people had this idea that if we take drugs we will go high.
So there was a drug called LSD. And they had given a special new name to that drug. There are acronyms and then you can redefine the acronyms.
Like somebody has a PhD. So we often say that. Somebody has a PhD the perpetual humility deficiency.
Now after a little it had to happen like that. Why? Because people can become very proud. We always say ego.
When somebody has ego what happens? E-G-O. Ego edges God out. It leaves no role for God.
So like that they had given a new name for LSD. LSD what was? The League of Spiritual Discovery. So anybody who takes LSD they are joining the special league of spiritual discovery.
And then you may have seen in some traditional temples that especially the temples of the goddess. Like some people just get possessed. And they start dancing.
Start moving very rapidly like dervishes. And they feel like they are possessed by something. Have you ever seen like this phenomena? In Bengaluru is there especially.
So you know when these people are possessed they behave in weird ways. But nobody stops them at that time. Because it’s like you know they are putting themselves in danger or somebody else is in danger.
Generally the goddess is manifesting through them or whatever. Now many people fake this also. But the idea is that when people would take LSD their idea was that after taking LSD when people would speak something Oh you are an LSD saint.
And it is like through LSD you get access to some other domain of wisdom. And from that domain something mystical, some great word of wisdom or that person might be speaking complete nonsense. Oh my god! A person is coming down from LSD be quiet and listen to them.
So when some people would just, when they were taking LSD and they would just come for the programme and you start with them and disrupt them. And Prabhupada decided keep calm and let them play out their particular LSD induced ideas. So one time one person suddenly got up and he said I want to speak.
And clearly the way he was talking he was high on LSD. So Prabhupada very calmly said question answers after the talk. He said no I want to speak.
Prabhupada said question answers after the talk. And there was at that time the devotees had created like a slightly higher wooden platform. They didn’t have an ashram.
A slightly higher wooden platform on which Prabhupada would sit and the audience would sit with him. So this particular big ghota he came and sat right next to Prabhupada. And Prabhupada looked at him he looked at Prabhupada, he looked at the audience and Prabhupada continued speaking.
And Prabhupada was looking nobody was able to pay attention also. And innocently he said I want to speak. So then Prabhupada just picked up karta and started doing kirtan.
And somehow the sound of the kirtan calmed it down. So then everybody did kirtan and then after that the kirtan got over. It was now.
At that time Prabhupada didn’t have much money. So it was not like an elaborate feast of prasad. Prabhupada just gave one or two apples.
He would cut the apples and use small pieces of apples to everyone. So one of the persons who was becoming a devotee he brought a knife and apple. So Prabhupada cut the apple and to everyone’s amazement Prabhupada stretched out his hand.
On that hand one side was the knife the other side was the apple. And when he stretched it out everybody felt completely silent. And everybody was looking at Prabhupada looking at the apple, looking at the knife, looking at the apple, looking at the knife, looking at the apple.
And then he extended his hand. And everybody in the saya were very bitter of that apple. So Prabhupada stayed extremely calm in such very provocative situations.
A lot of time I miss a boy called David who was staying with Prabhupada. He suddenly went high on drugs and started attacking Prabhupada. So our desires can go from being disruptive to even being destructive.
And when this happens then we don’t contribute to the goal. Like in football sometimes the goalkeeper is supposed to stop the ball. But sometimes what happens is the goalkeeper is so enthusiastic that the goalkeeper hits the ball into the net.
It’s called a self-goal. Self-goal is considered the worst kind of insult. Sometimes the goalkeeper might make a self-goal.
Sometimes the players might make a self-goal. So now if you consider that would be disruptive. So like that all of us based on the kind of desires we have we may create a lot of disruption.
And then what may happen is what we can contribute to the goal that may become much necessary. So a dharma can be that collectively things are going wrong or individuals are going wrong. Now often dharma is equated with duty or morality and that is true at one level.
But those are only partial understandings. Everyone says there is morality we could say morality in terms of how we drive if we are paying for a product or if we are buying a product then we should pay for it. Or if somebody is selling a product they should not be a charge of the operating price.
That is dharma and morality. So generally when a dharma happens that leads to disruption. That can lead even to destruction.
So for all of us Krishna is there to empower us to perform our dharma better in whatever role we might be in. And when we chant Hare Krishna and practise bhakti what happens is these destructive desires decrease and gradually the disruptive desires also decrease. And if we consider the troubles that come in our life many of the troubles that are there I talked about troubles and threats earlier so we can put both troubles and threats together the troubles and threats that we get in our life now we could say some of them come from the world but many of them come from our own actions or some of them what happens is it’s like one layer comes from the world another layer comes from our own actions and then comes the other like something bad happens to us and our reaction to it makes it 10 times worse so somebody insults us somebody speaks terribly to us somebody hurts us and if they hurt us then we hit back at the other person we physically assault that person and then everything becomes worse so quite often the way to do our dharma better is at the basic level our disruptive and destructive desires decrease so when Krishna descends to the world when Krishna gives us the message of the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna gives us the process of bhakti this is not just meant for other worldly purposes but it can also bring about this worldly transformation the transformation is that Krishna helps us empowers us to do our dharma better let’s move forward I would like to read the next line what’s the line? due to such unwholesome desires the devotional desires in my heart have weakened and feel threatened please oh lord strengthen those desires by your presence and benevolence so that my heart can become your throne and thereafter I can play my part in offering this world or at least offering one corner of this world to you so now our devotional desires can be understood in two different ways if we consider say we belong to various forms so we may belong to a family we may belong to a community we may belong to a state we may belong to a profession we may belong to a particular age group we may belong to a particular income level like that we can have many different belongings so as a student you have particular right as a son in a family you have particular right as a citizen of a country you have particular right so like that with each of these larger holes we have our relationship in terms of dharma so we do something for the larger hole and the larger hole does something for us and in that way we belong to various holes so when dharmasya glani starts happening it can be in both ways whatever larger hole we belong to that larger hole is very disruptive so I have friends who are in Ukraine and now I met a couple of them some of them in Canada some of them in UK and they kind of flourishing life over there, emotional life professional life I met one person in Canada he was a doctor like a heart surgeon in Ukraine and now in Canada he is driving an Uber because the Ukrainian medical degree is not organised in Canada and to again do that degree it requires a lot of money and doesn’t have that money so now that’s a terrible situation we can say but he is no longer a part of that medical community but he is now in a safer place so sometimes when we belong to one particular larger hole and that larger hole is very disruptive then we may decide I no longer want to belong to this hole, I would rather go and belong to some other hole and that’s fair sometimes we may decide I will stay here and I will fix and change this larger hole so some Indians may decide I don’t want to stay in India I want to go to America some Indians may say I want to stay in India and I want to work to change things so we often belong to various dharma we often belong to larger holes and we have dharmas in connection with those larger holes and that’s how dharma is multi-layered now among all of these holes the largest hole that contains all other holes that is Krishna that is God everything comes from me and everything is sustained by me Krishna is not just the largest hole Krishna is also the whole Krishna is also the collective that sustains all other collectives it’s not just greater in size but Krishna is what enables all other collectives to play their part so for example we have parrots so naturally we belong to a family now when a newborn baby is there the mother offers her breast milk to the newborn and that is one of the most intimate expressions of love when the mother offers her breast milk that is the mother’s love for the baby at the same time is that all that is going on over there the mother does not do anything special to produce milk in her breast at that time the same God who sent a child through her womb into the world also sends milk and she is looking her best for that child so the idea here is the mother and the father are individuals in their own right and their love is there no doubt and you cannot deny it at the same time it is not just their love it is Krishna’s love manifesting through them so Krishna sustains all larger worlds that we are a part of and Krishna sustains us in various ways through those larger worlds so when we talk about bhakti at one level we could say bhakti is that it is we serve Krishna and then Krishna empowers or protects us we do something for Krishna and Krishna does something for us so bhakti can be seen as that there is a largest whole and I belong to the largest however a devotee can even belong to each one of these holes by understanding that by taking the service I am actually serving and and also whatever is being given to me through this hole that is also given to me by Krishna so this is a spiritual vision of things so if our country is threatened then you may say this is just mundane I don’t have anything about it that’s one way of looking at it but other way is ultimately this country is also sustained by Krishna and I have got some facilities I have got some culture I have got some legacy for this country and if I see my service to my country as a part of my service to Krishna then that is a more inclusive vision so from this perspective when we talk about bhakti bhakti has two distinct aspects to it one is bhakti is transcendental transcendental means we go transcendentally means to go beyond so we go beyond all the other holes that we are a part of and we focus on the ultimate that is transcendental and so our sadhana that we do is transcendental part of transcendental bhakti and each one of us needs to create that awareness because if our awareness is fixed only on oh I belong to this family I belong to this age group I belong to this gender then each of like over identification with any of these larger collectives can become a source of conflict loving one’s country is good thinking my country is the best country well ok that might be as a sentiment it is good but my country is the best country and therefore you should conquer all other countries that would be dictatorial that is fascism so when we obsess over any larger hole a larger collective we over identify with it then that can become a problem India is among the few countries in the world where language is a cause of conflicts not so many other countries in India should Hindi be the language should English be the language should Tamil be the language should Telugu be the language I don’t know how many in North India it is an issue in South India their language was going on if you are imposing your language on us you are destroying our culture language is important there is all those politicians who use language to cause political conflicts if you ask them who are the prominent authors of this particular language what are their prominent books they have no idea so their linguistic pride is actually not really based on the greatness of the language or the greatness of literature in the language it is just a tool to work goods and people may get deceived by that so the idea is the transcendental belonging is essential otherwise if you consider Bhakti the other aspect is it is transformational transformational means this is through our Seva through our Seva what do we do we change the collective change we change some collective now we might play our role to improve any one particular collective for example when Indians go to America or Indians go to the western world generally till 5 years almost before Indians were often considered to be a model minority we are minorities in other parts of the world wherever we immigrate we are a model minority because Indians are generally law abiding, tax paying, family caring and America has a welfare system if you don’t have a job the government will provide you some money so that you can take care of yourself so Indians very rarely go on welfare if in a if say somebody is bankrupt or the business went off or somebody doesn’t have a job then quite often the community consider the matter of trying for the community that we should take care of our people should not be dependent, our people should not require to take money from the state so Indians are considered model minority what that means is that Indians they are belonging there in a harmonious way that’s a good thing but last 5-7 years many people have got wealth and in the past the Indians that would go to America would really be hard working talented, career focused but now many young people have got wealth and then they go to the western world and they just create so much disruption, rather than belonging over there, they often take the worst parts of Indian culture the worst parts of Indian culture could be evening singles in public or public urination or just all kinds of noisy and disruptive behaviour and there are some countries which say they don’t want Indian tourists to come so now what is happening is Indian culture there are wonderful parts about it but there are not so wonderful parts about it also and we may say that’s not Indian culture that is whatever it is but it is there unfortunately so the thing is that we want to whichever larger hole we are a part of we want to belong harmoniously to that hole we cannot necessarily be harmonious with every single hole that we are a part of this is the as Indians go to America then they may focus on their professional growth they may focus on their economic growth but then they cannot really be a part of the family because their extended family is over here so sometimes two dharmas may pull us in two different directions and that is often a concern of many Indians in America they feel guilty that we are not able to take care of our parents that’s sanity too but then the parents are often happy at least they are proud that my son is in America and so the thing is that we often have to choose among dharmas which dharma I can do, which dharma I cannot do so if we focus if in our bhakti we are practising it’s only transcendent and we don’t focus on the transformation at all then we will end up becoming irresponsible because we have to be a part of whatever community we are a part of so even if say somebody becomes a brahmachari but even as a brahmachari we have a role to play if somebody becomes a brahmachari then you become a part of the small community or the renounced order and then the renounced order, there is a harmonious way to belong to the renounced order and there is a disharmony in India at least people know what it means I was in America, I went for a college programme there was an American girl asked me a question she said, she is a college student why don’t you just fight among each other and then I answered the question elaborately explaining how there is extremism and other things after the class I was talking with the students and this girl came to me and she said this question has been burdening me for many years this is the first time I got a real satisfactory answer I am so grateful can I give you a hug now in India nobody has this so now I knew that in the west, hugging is just a part of like an expression of affection so now I can’t say yes obviously but saying no would be like saying that to western people it is one culture so I looked at the preacher who was organising, local devotee Indian grahastha devotee was organising the programme he was like, me please so he helped me in a most unexpected way he stepped forward he said I am a monk, on his behalf you can hug me that was not what I expected and his wife was next to him and his wife said I am his wife, on his behalf you can hug me so in that way hug happened harmoniously so the point is if I belong to a particular collective I have to function according to the belonging of that collective but at the same time I am also part of a larger group so if we are only transcendental then we can become irresponsible because we are all parts of a larger group but if we are focused only on transformation that means that ok you know I am going to fix things over here it might be in my college I will fix things in my home I will fix things in my office I will fix things or even in the spiritual community service you know I will fix things in the kitchen I will fix things in the preaching I will fix things in this that is good but if we focus only on the transformation then what will happen is quite often we end up becoming have you heard this word control freaks control freaks means what somebody tries to hyper control everything do it like this only and a small thing goes off and you become very angry so and once somebody becomes control freak either they become abused because what happens anybody who doesn’t listen to them they start thinking I am doing this on behalf of god and if you are not listening to me you are not just disobeying me you are offending god and you will go to hell sometimes people say first you go to hell right now I don’t care for you but this is sometimes what happens with people who have a lot of greed for some cause like somebody might be a environmentalist somebody might be a feminist somebody might be a nationalist and these are not bad things there are many things in the larger whole that could be reformed but when that becomes the only focus and the transcendental aspect is forgotten that I am doing this yes I am doing this as a service to god but the service will succeed as per god’s plan not my plan and that level of acceptance that level of humility is lost if we are transformational we can become very self righteous either we become abusive or we become better this person is not helping me these people are like that in the west especially there is a lot of concern about environmental issues and of course in India also among the youth it is there but sometimes it makes some of these environmental activists extremely bitter and abusive about everyone who doesn’t care about the environment as much as they care so sometimes if a parent is a very aggressive environmental activist the child wants to play with some toy and the parent will say can’t you see this toy is made of plastic and you are playing with the toy every child starts playing with the toy like this and because of this toy that you are playing with there will be one thousand one million tonnes of pollution and you give the child for playing with one thousand our zeal for a particular thing should not steal away our humanity so if we over identify with a particular thing now being a parent is one of the most important responsibilities somebody can take sometimes helicopter parenting like you know helicopter parenting is where ever the child goes the parent is there monitoring every single thing that the child is doing and the child has no space to grow the parents have to actually be protected but one part of protecting the child is also training the child to protect himself or herself we have to let the child grow up also so any role that we play it’s important to play that role but if we over identify with that so the balance is transcendental and transformational so when we have this transcendental understanding that I belong to Krishna and I will always belong to Krishna so through our sadhana whatever happens in our life we will be peaceful that I always am a part of Krishna and I will always be a part of Krishna we will get a deep sense of security so to the extent we connect with Krishna as the largest whole that I belong to the one largest collective from which I will never lose my place and then we find out whatever role we are playing the transformational part will make us purposeful so bhakti is a combination of being peaceful and being purposeful Arjuna was peaceful that I am aligned with Krishna’s will I am playing my part in Krishna’s plan but that peaceful did not mean passive was ready to fight a war was purposeful so this is the blessing that Krishna offers us when we descend to this world that what Krishna wants to awaken us to dharma means he wants each one of us to become peaceful and purposeful so peaceful that even if I make mistakes even if the world manipulates me even if things go wrong Krishna will never abandon me I will always be a part of Krishna purposeful means Krishna has given me some talents, Krishna has given me some abilities, Krishna has given me some interests, Krishna has given me some resources so let me use these to decide how I can best contribute and that way every devotee can have a renewed sense of purpose and this is Arjuna God that Krishna at the end of the Gita Arjuna says 18.73 the third line is saying I have become peaceful I have become well situated all my doubts, all my turbulence is gone I have become peaceful and at 18.73 I will do your will that is the indication that Krishna has inspired Arjuna also to become and summarise what I discussed today so the broad topic we discussed today was the role of how the divine is sent matters for us what is the significance of the Lord’s descent into this world that when Krishna descends to this world how is it significant so I discussed it broadly in three parts the first part we discussed is that how we may have with respect to we and Krishna we may initially have a law centred vision and in that law centred vision it is that when there is a minor trouble we go to Krishna when there is a major trouble Krishna comes to us so in that context we may feel always there is a major trouble so what does Krishna do when Krishna says dharma samsthapana so that dharma samsthapana dharma has a timeless, timely aspect to it Krishna comes at a particular time but there is also a timeless aspect to it and the timeless, timely aspect is the collective change that is collective dharma that is what Krishna talks about in four pointed the timeless aspect is Krishna inspires the individual dharma so we discussed these two dynamics of dharma little bit more in detail so dharma broadly means that we belong to a larger whole and we have to do something for the whole, that is the individual dharma and the whole has to do something for the collective dharma so in general the political side is concerned about the individual fitting into the system the political left is more concerned about the system being reformed so that things work out better now at different times different things are required now we talked about Krishna Krishna is not just a protector Krishna is also an emperor now when we understand that we are not just like a citizen who will be protected but Krishna wants each one of us to become like a warrior so Krishna wants us to play our part so we discussed how we are always parts of Krishna and that means always we have a part in Krishna’s plan so now what exactly is that part that has multiple aspects to it when you belong to a team there is a fixed aspect to it the fixed aspect is based broadly on the talent and the training but then there is a flexible aspect and the flexible aspect is based on the strategy and the team so like that for each one of us we discussed about how when we talk about dharma dharma is multi-level we belong to many poles we belong to family, we belong to a community, we belong to a country and ultimately the one pole that contains all other poles that is Krishna so our service to Krishna is a part of our transcendental dharma and our roles in the various other dharmas those are part of the transformational so bhakti itself is a combination of both the transformational and the transcendental, we discussed Krishna is not just the largest pole Krishna is also the largest pole to sustain all other poles so we practise bhakti if it is only transcendental that means what will happen by that we will not play our role we will end up becoming irresponsible Krishna says utpataiva karmate not like this utsideyur menoka nakurya karma chedam utsideyur menoka then you create disruptions so we discussed that when we belong to Krishna we discussed about our desires which are often disruptive or destructive so those desires get purified by bhakti and then each one of us can play our role better the desire is purified so whether it is our ultimate dharma or our dharma to various other blocks, so now on the other hand we focus only on the transformational part then what will happen is we will become very bitter because if somebody doesn’t help us somebody doesn’t cooperate with us, we will think we can handle it because the balance is that it’s both knowing that we will always be a part of Krishna that makes us peaceful and knowing that we have a role in this world makes us purposeful and in this way this is the gift that Krishna gives to everyone in this world Krishna gave to Arjuna a sense of peace and a sense of purpose thank you very much Hare Krishna Hare Krishna let us pray to Krishna, my dear lord help me to have peace by knowing that I am always your part and help me to find my purpose so that I can best contribute in this world while I make my path to you so Krishna Bhadwan Jai thank you very much do we have two minutes for questions one or two questions I wanted to ask that we could change the collective circle that is there we could stay there and try to change or we could just change it so how do we know that what is Krishna’s plan in that whether we have to change it or we have to switch that so see one part of Krishna’s plan is that we can’t know Krishna’s plan what I mean is that see Krishna doesn’t want us to become like pre-programmed zombies or wasps so Krishna’s plan if you see with Arjuna also it is not that when Arjuna was fighting a war Krishna was controlling every single arrow that Arjuna was shooting it is not that Arjuna had to ask Krishna can I shoot this arrow can I shoot this arrow Arjuna was his own individual and Krishna let him be that individual like a good captain may tell a bowler that you bowl outside the off-stump or whatever but it is not that a good captain will be running to the bowler after each ball and tell him don’t bowl like this maybe in very crucial stages of the match but a bowler will like to be that much controlled by a captain so Krishna’s plan is not so much like a thin narrow line it is more like a broad direction so it is not that you have to go on this path only so basically we are in let’s take another example that this is the top of the mountain this is the ocean now from the river from the ocean from the mountain a river is going towards the ocean so all the rivers are meant to go to the ocean but each river finds its own way towards the ocean some rivers may go on a more complicated way each river will meet its own obstacle and each river will find its own way to deal with the obstacle if you consider among the Pandavas if you look at say Rishtya and Bhima now sometimes if you meet two brothers like in America they are two brothers both have become devotees when they see two brothers you try to see what are the similarities what are the differences between them now if you look at Rishtya and Bhima it is difficult to think of two brothers who could be more dissimilar than them isn’t it both of them are Kshatriyas technically speaking but he was more like a a brown horned Kshatriya you know that ok he tried to solve everything by discussion, negotiation he went backward to avoid conflict but Bhima was more like a Kshatriya-Akshatriya you could say Akshatriya squared laughter you will be itching for a fight it is not that you become a devotee and play a part in Krishna’s plan Yudhishthir had to become Bhima or Bhima had to become Rishtya they were both individuals so that is why each one of us has to consider broadly speaking we need to look at this is a whole different class about finding our purpose or what could be our purpose if we are moving towards our purpose in life we feel as if we have some breathing air so we look at our abilities then we look at our interests and then we look at our resources abilities interests and resources and based on that we discuss so the point of us when they found that they had been attempted to be burnt alive in Varanavata they decided that this is not just an individual hatred of Duryodhana this is a much bigger conspiracy to erect a whole palace to arrange to have them sent to a completely different place all among the elders are into this conspiracy they decided this is a dangerous thing, let’s get out of here so after Bhima was poisoned and survived, this came back to the community they thought that this might just be Duryodhana’s solitary hatred or agenda so they went out and they stayed incognito for some time till they allied with Drupada, who was a powerful rival king when they married his daughter then Dhritarashtra would be no more and even after that when they came back they didn’t just belong to the same clan they were given in a khandav they converted into Dhritarashtra so each one of us has to make our decisions we can take guidance from senior devotees we can pray to Krishna we can use our intelligence so broadly speaking these are the primary things we should look for what are my abilities, what are my interests I may have ability to do something but I may not feel so driven to do something so another way to understand this is that look inward to see what are my interests so look inward to what are my abilities look outward to look at what are the resources and then look upward great question so look inward to see what is my inspiration look outward to take guidance from others to understand what resources we have to understand what we are likely to be able to do and then look upward so for example many Indians they emigrated from India to America but now Indian economy is also booming, so in the last 10 years or so it’s not booming, it’s improving I see many Indians from America want to come back to India and they settle in upscale Indian communities and they try to belong over here so that is something which is a very careful individual decision has to be taken but praying to Krishna and consulting with others thank you very much Shrila Prabhupada Ki Shri Mat Bhagwatinda Ki Jai Jai Jai